Marcus Mac Conghail was arrested because the guards didn’t like his street sean-nós. He tried to hitch from Cork City to Corca Dhuibhne once but he only reached Killarney that night and slept in a football field. He never knows whether suc(c)eed has one C or two. He’s been seeing a dictionary for quite some time and its doubtful whether he wrote a poem without referring to it. In fact, often it’s the dictionary itself who rights (sic?) the poem. He has a fierce desire to go to London and compose a praise poem for Elizabeth, the English Queen. He’s been whoring himself bigtime the last couple of months in an attempt to interest anybody in his book of poems and songs Ceol Baile, which was published by Coiscéim this year.

Nicola Griffin grew up in Cheshire in the north west of England but has lived in East Clare in the west of Ireland since 1997. Her first collection of poetry Unbelonging was published by Salmon Poetry in 2013. Her poems have appeared in various publications including The Sunday Tribune, The Stinging Fly, Crannóg, The SHOp and Orbis (UK). A non-fiction book The Skipper and Her Mate was published by New Island, also in 2013. She was awarded a Literature Bursary Award by the Arts Council of Ireland in 2012. She writes for and is sub-editor of the Inland Waterways News and is co-editor of the poetry newspaper Skylight 47.

Moyra Donaldson was born and brought up in County Down. Prior to her most recently published Selected Poems from New Liberties Press (2013), Moyra published four collections of poetry with Lagan Press: Snakeskin Stilettos (1998); Beneath The Ice (2001); The Horse’s Nest (2006) and Miracle Fruit (2010). Her poetry has won a number of awards, including the Allingham Award, the National Women’s Poetry Competition and the Cuirt New Writing Award. She has received four awards from the Arts Council NI, most recently, the Artist Career Enhancement Award. Her poems have been anthologised and have featured on BBC Radio and television, including the Channel 4 production, Poems to Fall in Love With. Having read at various literary festivals in Ireland, England, Canada, America and Hungary, Moyra is also an experienced creative writing tutor, working with individuals and groups in the literary, community and health care sectors. She has edited a number of anthologies and was literary editor for Fortnight magazine.

Peter O’Neill was born in Cork in 1967, and after having spent the majority of the nineties living in France he returned to Dublin where he now resides. His debut collection Antiope (Stonesthrow Poetry, 2013) was received to critical acclaim. ‘Certainly a voice to be reckoned with,’ Wrote Dr Brigitte Le Juez (DCU). His second collection The Elm Tree (Lapwing, 2014) was also well received: ‘a wonder to behold.’ Ross Breslin (The Scum Gentry). A third collection will be appearing early in the new year The Dark Pool (mgversion2datura).

A prize-winning poet and playwright, John Menaghan has published four books with Salmon Poetry: All the Money in the World (1999), She Alone (2006), What Vanishes (2009) and Here and Gone (2014). Kirkus Reviews called All the Money in the World “an auspicious beginning.” The Hudson Review called She Alone “one of the best books of 2006.” And Books Ireland described What Vanishes as an “evocative” and “experimental” collection with a jazz-like form and flow. Four of his short plays have received productions in Los Angeles, and one in Omaha. One of those plays A Rumor of Rain was published in The Hollow & Other Plays (2008). Menaghan teaches literature and creative writing at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he also serves as Director of both the Irish Studies and Summer in Ireland programs. For more visit: http://redroom.com/author/john-menaghan

7th July

Ó Bhéal in association with the Cork City CouncilandCoventry City Council

presents a Twin Cities Celebrationwith Coventry poets

Adam Steiner and Saleha Begum

Coventrian poet Adam Steiner writes about the NHS, the British condition and death of affect. His poetry and stories appear in 3:AM, The Cadaverine, Spontaneity, Abridged 0-13, Annexe, The Literateur, Nostrovia! SquawkBack, Black Wire, NOUS, Erotic Review, also The Dance Is New, Poems Underwater and Stepaway – Voicewalks anthologies. He is Deputy Editor of Here Comes Everyone magazine.

Saleha Begum is a writer and artist living in Birmingham. Her first collection Ruptures and Fragments (Upfront Publishing, 2012) is a philosophical enquiry into the mind and body, a paradox of wordplay that contains a sort of mischievousness and intentional obedience, whilst exploring the everyday questions and quandaries, i.e. existence, purpose, relationships, love and the inner child. She has previously co-hosted and produced a radio show, interviewing both established and emerging poets and later on was given the opportunity to direct a radio play called broken silence, all along working with the community to build bridges and tackle social problems. She is a full time Cover teacher at a secondary School and regularly works with her students in creative arts projects and competitions. Saleha is currently working on an exhibition drawing on the concept of mind, machine and the mechanical world. To keep sane, she loves the great outdoors, meditation and is currently training to be a yoga teacher.

Róisín Tierney is an Irish poet based in London. She read in Dublin as part of the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series in June 2008. Her work has appeared in many magazines, including Poetry Ireland Review, The Sunday Tribune (New Irish Writers), Magma, Arabesque Review, Horizon Review, Lampeter Review, The North and The London Magazine. She was short-listed for the 2006 Strokestown Poetry Prize and won joint 2nd prize in the 2007 Brendan Kennelly Poetry Competition. Other prizes include a Poetry Life and a runner-up Bridport Prize in 2002 as well as an OXFAM Literature Poetry Prize in 2004. Her pamphlet Dream Endings (Rack Press) won the 2012 Michael Marks Pamphlet Award. Her debut collection The Spanish-Italian Border is published by Arc publications.

James O’Sullivan is a PhD candidate at University College Cork where he studies under Graham Allen, recipient of the Listowel Single Poem Prize in 2010, and Órla Murphy. His poetry has appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies, including The SHOp, Southword, Revival and wordlegs. He is the author of Kneeling on the Redwood Floor (Lapwing, 2011) and Groundwork (Alba, 2014). In addition to various minor awards, he received a High Commendation in the 2013 Charles Macklin Poetry Prize. James has read his work at such venues as the Irish Writers’ Centre in Dublin, and Galway’s Róisín Dubh. He has also been a guest reader at both the Cork Short Story Festival and Cork Spring Poetry Festival, as well as at the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. James is the Founding Editor of New Binary Press. Further information on James and his interests can be found at www.josullivan.org.

Raina J. León, Cave Canem graduate fellow (2006) and member of the Carolina African American Writers Collective, has been published in numerous journals as a writer of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Her first collection of poetry Canticle of Idols was a finalist for both the Cave Canem First Book Poetry Prize (2005) and the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize (2006). Her second book Boogeyman Dawn (2013, Salmon Poetry) was a finalist for the Naomi Long Madgett Prize (2010). She has received fellowships and residencies with Cave Canem, CantoMundo, Montana Artists Refuge, the Macdowell Colony, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Annamaghkerrig, Ireland and Ragdale. She also is a founding editor of The Acentos Review, an online quarterly, international journal devoted to the promotion and publication of Latino and Latina arts. She is an assistant professor of education at Saint Mary’s College of California. For more visit www.rainaleon.com.

Raina will also be holding a wordshop entitled The Mouths of Our Ancestors from 7.00pm to 8.30pm at Ó Bhéal. For more details click here.

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